Marketing report template

Since you already know effective reporting is key to keeping clients and growing your business; you want to know the most time-efficient way of doing it. Typically, finding a great template ensures each month your client receives a high-quality report that you simply need to populate with the latest stats and wins.

Let’s take a look at what makes a great report template for a social media, PR or general marketing report.

First, something practical:

Common sense and easy to complete

Your template is only effective if it a) conveys your work well and b) saves you time versus starting a new one from scratch each month.

“An awesome template report is only as good as your ability to stick to it.”

So, any great reporting template needs a great structure that makes it easy and intuitive for you to complete each month. Consistency in the layout and content helps you do the reporting and helps your client understand it because they don’t need to get used to a new style or sections each time they receive one.

Having clear sections ensures ensure each report is similar in length, structure and layout, and that’s what we’ll look at here.

A great introduction

The first part of your template should be something that really aims to get on a level with the reader and showcases the headline stats. Whether these aims are achieved with graphics or through your words, getting off on the right foot is key.

This means your marketing template should have a consistent heading area that you can complete each month.

Clear sections and section structures

Each section should address either a platform, campaign, or specific goal or KPI. Within each section, there should be a structure, typically an intro, specific actions and results, then an explanation or something forward-looking.

A solid conclusion

The final section of the document needs to be short and sweet, ensuring the client has a clear understanding of what’s in store for next month. There shouldn’t be any surprises, here, and this will usually be a paragraph or two on text.

A picture of you or the account manager could be a nice touch at this stage, reminding the client they’re in safe-hands and that you are a human being, not a robot compiling an automated report!

Tools for making your report templates

PowerPoint or Keynote

Usually the tool of choice, PowerPoint does offer a good blend of customisation and consistency. Whilst it usually requires a little time, expertise, and an eye for what looks professional, many a beautiful report has been produced using PowerPoint.

The challenge is that replacing images and copy throughout the report remains time-consuming because you’re still left searching for all of those screenshots you’ve taken. Adding annotations and new copy is likely to mean you have to reformat certain elements of the document if you want to keep it looking slick.

In order to make PowerPoint as efficient a reporting tool as it is an aesthetically pleasing one, sticking to your template as closely as possible is key. This means ensuring each screenshot you take closely matches the dimensions of the corresponding one in last month’s. It also requires you to be super organised in your screenshot filing each month.

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a very, very simple way to report. If your client is unlikely to need anything fancy or if you’re a wizard with words, sticking to a text-heavy report might suit both of you.

With fewer options on styling and features, reports made using a Microsoft Word template will almost certainly save you time in the design department. However, don’t underestimate the time it takes to reword sections, conjure up completely new paragraphs and check spelling and grammar. On the whole, it might actually save you time if you’re more reliant upon stats and images to convey your success.

The Flaunt template

We based the Flaunt template on all of the above criteria to give flexibility on content with the ease of a ready-formatted template that’s easy to populate. Besides, the awesome Chrome extension that automatically files screenshots by client and report section, which makes life very easy, the template saves you time through consistency.

Remember too, that the awesometer means you can allow Flaunt to auto-populate the report with ready-completed annotations! This is probably the main time-saver over the likes of PowerPoint or Word – the report can actually put itself together, putting groups screenshots together (either by the campaign, platform or KPI).

Flaunt provides a ready-made template for just $5 per client, per month, which is likely to pay dividends, even if you have a great reporting template in place. The screenshot filing and auto-population makes everything incredibly time-efficient, which makes a huge difference to your productivity over the course of a month.